Author: El Mejor

I drove in from OC to Santa Monica. I took the Five Freeway North to the Ten East. This is the most active 4th of July, in my thirty odd years of living in Southern California. A journey of 45 miles of freeway was garlanded in fireworks, 40 miles were lit up. The other five were smokey. It was brazen, mortars in air. Bombardment. People along the freeways look to be having a great time with fireworks out in Los Angeles and northern Orange County. Glorious drive. I love this.

News:Lately I’ve been reading the Wall Street Journal, haphazardly because I have a two month subscription for one fiat dollar. My other news sources are journalists like Michael Tracey, Glenn Greenwald, and various and sundry other twitterers. I read antiwar.com for foreign policy news as well.

Movies at home:I recently bought X-Men: Days of Future Past on a streaming service. I got the Rogue Cut which expands the plot in the dark future by adding Rogue, and a rescue of her in order to replace Kitty Pryde who had been grievously injured by the Wolverine. This movie uses the trope I find most fascinating: pinpointing a moment that leads to a future we’d preferably not live in. Bryan Singer presents that future in Days of Future Past by starting in a New York City, presented as an open air prison in the literal sense, thoughtfully contrasting to our present reality’s neo-liberal caraceral affliction in New York City.

Podcasts:I really like Part of the Problem, a podcast by Dave Smith. He is culturally a Jewish New Yorker, and a comedian by trade. Smith’s unique interest in current events, culture, news and libertarianism’s most consistent school of thought have made him the equivalent of Jon Stewart during the Bush years. Smith, like Stewart, has a comedic point of view with a role that requires him to comment on the news of the day.

Check him out in conversation with Michael Malice, another podcaster worth checking out:

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These are the two most interesting dissident members of the two major parties.

They are both in the House of Representatives and are known for challenging their party on issues near and dear to me – war. Gabbard is running for her party’s nomination. Amash, I hope, will look to the Libertarian Party for their nomination. Looking forward to seeing how they approach a very opinionated media, the Trumpist trolls, the military-industrial complex (called “The MIC” on Twitter), and the Evangelical Left.

I have organized a recommended reading list of cultural history/criticism/history about America in the 20th and 21st century – roughly in order of publishing. Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day is a good amount of time to peruse ten books that will leave you with a greater sense of why the world around you is so twisted.

1995:

“Hotel America: Scenes in the Lobby of the Fin de Siecle (Theory, Culture and Society)” – Lewis Lapham

1999:

“The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy” – Nicholas Lemann

2000:

“Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There” by David Brooks

2001:

“The Last Empire” – Gore Vidal

2010:

“A Renegade History of the United States” by Thaddeus Russell

2012:

“Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America” by Gustavo Arellano

2014:

“Straight to Hell: True Tales of Deviance, Debauchery, and Billion-Dollar Deals” by John LeFevre

The point is we’re waiting, not how comfortable we are while waiting. Paleolithic man waited by caves for the realization of why he was there, and hunted; modern men wait in beautified homes and try to forget death and birth. We’re waiting for the realization that this is the golden eternity.

16, The Scripture of the Golden Eternity by Jack Kerouac

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Men of a certain vintage ought moisturize. I recommend visiting Koreatown Galleria in Los Angeles and consulting with the brilliant ladies of Palace Beauty Galleria. But at the very least do the following: